University Times

Pitt’s ongoing fundraising campaign, the largest in the University’s history, reached another milestone by topping $550 million in donations and pledges, officials announced this week.

The announcement of the $550 million milestone includes a commitment from the Giant Eagle Foundation for a donation of $1.4 million, the 100th gift of $1 million or more during the fundraising campaign.

The Giant Eagle gift will support educational and community outreach initiatives in the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), the College of Arts and Sciences, the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, the School of Pharmacy and the School of Social Work.

The largest portion of the gift, $1 million, will endow the Giant Eagle Foundation Chair in Cancer Genetics at UPCI.

The Pitt campaign’s original goal was upped and the timeline extended by the Board of Trustees last June, after Pitt reached its $500 million goal more than a year ahead of schedule.

The University now hopes to raise $1 billion by June 2007. Pitt is among 21 American universities pursuing campaigns of $1 billion or more.

Among other designated uses, contributions to the Pitt campaign have been earmarked for:

• 185 new named endowed scholarship funds ranging on average from $50,000 to $150,000, an increase of 43 percent in the number of such funds since the beginning of the campaign in 1997;

• 29 new named endowed chairs of $1.5 million to $2.5 million each, an increase of 28 percent in chairs since the beginning of the campaign;

• 10 new named endowed professorships of $750,000 to $1 million, an increase of 28 percent in named professorships, and

• 204 new named miscellaneous faculty and student resource endowments of $10,000 to $500,000 to support research projects, research travel, book purchases and student academic projects, a 59 percent increase in the number of such funds.

The campaign has attracted a total of 72,918 donors to account for $181 million of the total raised to date.

Campaign gifts from alumni and friends include $135 million to the University endowment, with $87 million benefiting academic endowments and $45 million targeted for facilities improvements, Pitt officials said.

Albert J. Novak Jr., interim vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement, said: “We need everyone at all levels to support and reach the University’s campaign for $1 billion.”